VICTORVILLE

BIG BEAR LAKE

There will be an extra layer of padding for snowboarders and skiers tumbling down the slopes this weekend.

Thursday night’s storm, which dampened roads during the post-work commute, was expected to drop 2 to 4 inches of fresh powder on the region’s ski resorts, a welcome change to this dry winter.

“Mother Nature has been a little stingy early this season, but at least she’s coming through now,” said Chris Riddle, vice president of marketing at Big Bear Mountain Resorts, which includes Snow Summit and Bear Mountain.

Up to a third of an inch of rain was expected to shower Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire on Thursday night and into the morning, according to meteorologists.

Upland had .014 of an inch of rain while Rialto Airport had .0.12 as of 5 p.m.

“It’s going to be some well-needed rain, but it’s not going to do much for the drought,” said Bob Smerbeck, senior meteorologist at accuweather.com.

Water is expected to cease falling sometime Friday.

“It’s a tough call whether it will be damp for the commute in the morning,” said Brett Albright of the National Weather Service. “It looks like it should mostly clear out in the morning.”

Temperatures are expected to hover around a high of 60 degrees Friday in Southern California before rising throughout the weekend as clouds disperse, and the sun returns.

By Sunday, meteorologists are predicting the highs to be right around the average for this time of year — 69 degrees.

And moving into next week, a high pressure area will likely form over Baja California pushing any storms north of the region and into central California, according to Smerbeck.

The dry conditions have slowed business a bit at Big Bear Mountain Resorts and Mountain High in Wrightwood, according to employees.

Both companies are offering special discounts in hopes of attracting customers to their chairlift lines.

“We’ve definitely been down as far as business levels go, because we only have one of our three resorts open,” said Kim Hermon, Mountain High’s marketing director. “So we’ve been basically focusing on our west resort, and we’ve been doing OK.”

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A week of cold temperatures has allowed the ski resorts to run their snowmaking equipment and build bigger terrain park features, as slushy runs transition to mid-winter form.

“In Southern California we expect to have these long periods of no snowfall ... that’s why we built these huge snowmaking systems that can take advantage of cold weather,” said Riddle of Big Bear Mountain Resorts.

The resorts’ marketing directors hope temperatures remain on the cool side next week as they prepare for the usually busy President’s Day weekend.